Improving Tissue Procurement Processes to Efficiently Obtain Critical Biospecimens

Abstract

Tumor biobanks are critical components of the biomedical research infrastructure. Biospeci-mens collected, processed and banked under strict standard operating procedures and annotat-ed with longitudinal clinical data are in high demand. The Miami Cancer Institute’s Biospecimen Repository Facility (BRF) was established to support translational research by facilitating the procurement of tumor and normal biospecimens and annotating them with relevant clinical and molecular data. For surgical cases, in order to achieve higher enrollment rates, the patient in-formed consent process was modified to include approaching patients on their day of surgery. To enhance procurement of tissue biospecimens, we examined factors influencing case identification, collection, and banking capabilities. Surgery schedules and historical performance were evaluated and, as a result, our workday expanded to accommodate collection activities for cases with delays or late start times in surgery. The Biorepository inventory was assessed by disease type and surgical procedure. We found that our highest volumes of biospecimens banked included kidney, soft tissue tumors, and lung, while our lowest volumes corresponded to head and neck, bladder, and prostate cancer. Therefore, we designed collection protocols in conjunction with the Department of Pathology to archive supplemental biospecimens from those cases where the standard of care procedure does not yield sufficient tissue for banking and for those tumor types that are not macroscopically visible, which were the main reasons for low inventory volume. Our operational adjustments have resulted in a greater overall yield of tissue biospecimens procured for research purposes.

Publication Date

10-25-2019

Presented At:

14th Annual BHSF Research Conference

Content Type

Poster

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